Season 1 Episode 7
"I.." (Reased November 18, 2007) Renji and Chihiro continue to work on her novel at the school library. With Renji's help, Chihiro manages to complete what she estimates to be 70% of the story. Renji tells Chihiro that the girl in the story seems 'cute', which disappoints Chihiro. She explains that character is meant to feel 'off', not cute. Afterwards, the two take a walk on the beach. Chihiro suddenly asks Renji if he wants to kiss her, but Renji senses that she is acting odd. She seems 'off' somehow. His innate shyness kicks in, preventing him from clearly articulating his reticence in kissing her, saying only that "This is not how it should be." Chihiro interprets his response as a rejection and she runs away from him in tears. Renji drops to his knees in the sand, hoping she will not write down what just happened in her diary. In a flashback, Miyako prepares to go out on her date with Hiro on Sunday. She lives in a house that is quite large even by American standards. While dressing for her date she says to herself, "I had given up, but I now found it", meaning that she has decided to end her self-imposed isolation now that she has found Hiro. As she exits the house she turns and yells, "I'm leaving!", but no one is there to wave her goodbye. She says to herself, "Just kidding." It is because she is the only family member still living in her broken home. In a flashback to Miyako's childhood, we finally learn the cause of her athazagoraphobia. She narrates, "One day, my mom disappeared from my dad's heart. And my dad disappeared from my mom's heart." Miyako then disappeared from their hearts as well (she has no siblings). We see her parents' acrimonious divorce, ending with her mother standing alone in the kitchen tossing plates in the air. Miyako narrates that the crashes of the plates were the last 'sounds' that Miyako had ever heard in that house. It is unclear how Miyako had ended up living alone in the house. It is possible that after the divorce her mother might have fallen into a deep depression and neglected her until Miyako eventually had her institutionalized, or perhaps her mother had simply abandoned the family home and Miyako grew up alone, using her wits to escape the notice of the child protection authorities. With Hiro she now has a place that she can call a real home: A place with sound, a place with color. However, Hiro is late for their date. Miyako tries to call him. He does not answer. As time passes she sends him several voicemail messages on his cellphone. At first she is upset with him not showing up, but as time goes on shes grows more and more anxious. She asks, pleads, and then begs for Hiro not to ignore her. She leaves him increasingly desperate voicemail messages. Eventually she completely breaks down. The phone scene lasts for several minutes (she leaves 99 messages) and is heartbreaking to watch. After the End Credits The story shifts to the present in Hiro's room, with Hiro and Kei together. After Hiro leaves his room to get food, Kei discovers Miyako's messages on Hiro's cellphone and promptly deletes them, as she has vowed to erase her from his memories. Limit of 99 Voicemail Messages The old-style clamshell cell phones of the 2000's had a well-known limit of 99 incoming voicemail messages. Miyako leaves 99 messages for Hiro, which fills the phone up to its maximum limit. After Kei secretly erases the voicemails from Hiro's cellphone, Miyako later sends another voicemail message and it goes through, so she thinks that Hiro has been deleting all of her voicemails and is ignoring her, and she leaves Hiro because of it. Previous Episode | Next Episode Category:Episodes Category:Season 1